U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made some changes to Form I-9 — the form that all companies have to fill out for new employees, verifying their identity and that they’re authorized to work in the U.S.
But instead of just dumping changes on you, USCIS wants to hear from you. That’s why they’re inviting the public to comment on the proposed revisions until May 29, 2012.
What kind of changes have they made?
On the new I-9 form, you’ll find a completely different layout. First, you’ll notice that there is an expanded set of instructions. Then, you’ll see additional boxes that ask for the employee’s email address and phone number. These boxes, however, are optional.
But there are other new boxes on the form that aren’t optional — like the data fields that ask for the employee’s foreign passport number and the country it was issued in. If one of your new employees is an alien that listed his I-94 admission number on the I-9 form, he’ll be required to fill out these boxes.
For the next few weeks, you’ll be able to share your thoughts on the new changes by logging onto www.regulations.gov. There, you’ll find the exact revisions that are being proposed, along with instructions on how to comment on them.
Until the new changes are officially approved, you’ll need to use the current version of the I-9 form. You can find it online, on the USCIS I-9 resource center, “I-9 Central”. In addition to the form, I-9 Central also includes handy information about the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees, instructions on how to complete the form, and a list of documents that employees can use to verify their identity.
And, once the new I-9 form takes effect, you’ll get to read all about it on I-9 Central.
For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov.